Evaluating Laser‐Based Microfabrication in Microfluidics: An Experimental and Computational Trial

Abstract

The aim of this research is to validate a new prototyping method for microfluidic devices which could compete with the widely used polydimethylsiloxane soft lithography. This alternative methodology uses laser‐etched glass and pre‐cured silicone as main materials. A dual approach is chosen for validation, testing prototypes of a mixing device well known in the scientific literature. Specifically the focus is to evaluate the mixing efficiency (ME) of two fluids flowing through the device. After fine‐tuning the fabrication process, the ME is experimentally evaluated, and the results are compared with a 3D computational fluid dynamic analysis.